22
The propeller airplane
Earth parallel: 1903–1940. Goal: people fly, safely and on a timetable, and the sky becomes one more road of the island.
| ID | Achievement | About year |
|---|---|---|
| 22.01 | Plywoodthin sheets of wood glued with the grain crossed: light, strong, and it does not split | 62 |
| 22.02 | Wind tunnela fan drives air past a model wing and balances weigh its lift and its drag: the wing is right before anyone flies it | 62 |
| 22.03 | Glider ⚠a wing that carries a person down a slope on moving air: steering is learned before any engine is trusted | 63 |
| 22.04 | Doped fabric coveringcloth stretched over the frame and painted with a lacquer that shrinks it drum-tight and weatherproof | 63 |
| 22.05 | Light aircraft enginea gasoline engine pared down until each horsepower weighs a kilogram or two | 64 |
| 22.06 | Propeller airplane ⚠a wing, a tail, an engine and a propeller: people fly | 65 |
| 22.07 | Airfielda long, level, drained strip with a windsock, sheds and fuel | 65 |
| 22.08 | Flight instrumentsairspeed indicator, altimeter and gyroscope horizon: the pilot knows speed, height and which way is up inside a cloud | 66 |
| 22.09 | Parachutea canopy of fine cloth lets a person fall safely from a failing aircraft | 66 |
| 22.10 | Pilot's licence and the rules of the airnobody flies alone until they have been taught and tested; rules for height, lights and right of way | 66 |
| 22.11 | Seaplane and flying boatan aircraft that takes off from the water of the gulf and comes down on it | 67 |
| 22.12 | High-octane aviation fuelgasoline that can be squeezed harder without knocking: more power from the same engine | 68 |
| 22.13 | Weather forecast service with balloonsinstruments sent up every day on balloons, readings gathered by radio, a forecast given to pilots, sailors and farmers | 68 |
| 22.14 | Radial aero engine ⚠cylinders set like the spokes of a wheel round one crank and cooled by the air: great power for little weight | 69 |
| 22.15 | Safety glass and clear acrylic sheeta windscreen that cracks without flying apart, and a clear plastic that can be moulded into a canopy | 70 |
| 22.16 | Control tower, radio beacon and runway lightsaircraft are guided by voice, find their way by radio, and land at night | 70 |
| 22.17 | Aerial photography and mappingthe whole island photographed from above and drawn from the pictures | 70 |
| 22.18 | All-metal aircraft with stressed skinthe aluminium skin itself carries the load: faster, stronger, and it does not rot | 72 |
| 22.19 | Airliner for passengers, cargo and maila large closed aircraft on a timetable: the far end of the island in an hour | 74 |
| 22.20 | Radarradio pulses bounce back from an aircraft or a ship: it is seen in darkness and fog, and its distance is read from a screen | 76 |
| 22.21 | Helicopter ⚠lifted by a turning wing, it rises straight up, hovers, and lands on a patch of ground | 80 |